


Gentle Giant

by Canadiantardis



Series: Whumptober 2020 [15]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dungeons & Dragons, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Based on a thing that happened in a campaign i was in, Blood and Injury, Body Horror, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Demonic Possession, Gen, Kinda sorta i don't really know, Moceit can be seen as romantic or platonic, One Shot, Possession, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26778061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: It had been a successful mission, all things considering.
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, platonic DRLAMP
Series: Whumptober 2020 [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1920886
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22





	Gentle Giant

**Author's Note:**

> Day 15: Possession  
> This was a lot of fun to write and I spent way too long figuring what the Sides' classes and races were.
> 
> Patton: Firbolg, Circle of the Land Druid  
> Janus: Changeling (his common persona is a human that has much the same features as his actual appearance), College of Eloquence Bard  
> Logan: High Elf, Lore Mastery Wizard  
> Virgil: Tiefling (Variant, Devil's Tongue), Scout Rogue  
> Roman: Dragonborn (Red/Fire), Battle Master Fighter  
> Remus: Dragonborn (Green/Poison), Path of the Wild Soul Barbarian

It had been a successful mission, all things considering. Patton and the others agreed to search for an amulet an older noble had said had been stolen from him. He had told them that it was very special to him, like a family heirloom. Patton and Roman, bleeding hearts that they were, were instantly on board with helping him, Janus and Logan persuaded by the price for safely returning the amulet to him. Remus removed himself from the conversation, but would go with the others on whatever they planned on doing, while Virgil was suspicious and only agreed after he got as much information on the amulet and who may have stolen it as he could from the nobleman and the staff of his house.

They had to head west on the leads they were given, and it took several weeks to eventually find the amulet and take it back. While the others distracted the inhabitants of the home, Patton and Virgil went through the building undetected, swiped the amulet, and left without even staff of the home being alerted to their presence - Patton was thankful he managed to think of a small enough creature to shift into that no one would notice unless they were very perceptive.

The rest of the party left soon after and met up on the road. They’d continue moving until they reached the next town, take a few rooms at an inn, and make sure the amulet was the right one that the noble was after.

Patton had the amulet on him. Virgil told him it was best he have it since he was the least likely to pawn it off for money out of the group - Roman had been on thin ice, but he’d likely want to keep it since it was a beautiful ruby inlaid with what must have been pure gold. If this was for sure the amulet that was a family heirloom the noble had said was stolen from him, it made sense it would potentially cost a fortune if they sold it.

So the party found an inn at another town away from the place they stole back the amulet. Janus had to step out, knowing an acquaintance elsewhere that he wished to speak to for a bit, and the rest settled at a table to eat some nice, well-made, hot food.

“What’s the next step?” Roman asked, relaxing in his seat. He had taken off his armour, though Patton always found it funny the dragonborn even wore additional armour. His scales should be enough, at least like Remus.

“We must ensure the amulet we took is in fact the one we’ve been searching for,” Logan answered. “Then I suppose we return to the road and head back to that lord for our reward for returning his stolen jewelry.”

“Oh! Do you have that identify spell ready, Lo?” Patton asked, patting down his pockets for the one he had placed the amulet in. “We can work on that stuff now so tomorrow we can go!”

Logan sighed, but nodded, “Yes, I do have that spell at my disposal.”

He was still speaking when Patton found the correct pocket and quickly grabbed the amulet to pull it out. However, the moment his hands brushed the jewel part of the amulet, something painful shot through his arm up to his head. His hand gripped the amulet tightly and he felt a push, and his vision went dark.

He felt nothing. It was as if he were floating in something he couldn’t feel or sense, but he knew he was floating. A presence pushed him further and further away, but he wasn’t entirely sure _what_ he was being pushed away from. He tried to fight it, wanting to know what was happening and where he went. He had just been with his friends. He had just been sitting with them, talking about their plans.

Pushing against the presence, even as lightly as Patton was, seemed to anger it to no end. Sudden burning pain hit him everywhere, but he could not see a thing. He tried to open his mouth to yell, scream, _something,_ but couldn’t seem to be able to make a single sound.

* * *

Janus promised to see his friend later in the evening, as he was busy with work. He hoped the others wouldn’t mind him leaving them again on the same day, but he figured they did the same all the time in other towns that they knew. It wasn’t his fault that he hadn’t made a lot of connections prior to becoming a member of their group.

It certainly wasn’t his fault that those who he was acquaintances with had never seen the correct Janus.

He pushed his hair out of his face, feeling it shrink to a more manageable length and put his hat back on. The tiefling persona he embodied with the friend could never wear hats thanks to the ridiculous horns he gave himself. He blamed Virgil for making him think all tieflings had annoyingly ridiculous horns, even if he hadn’t met Virgil until at least three years after creating the persona.

Janus took his time walking through town to the inn when he noticed something peculiar. The sounds of shouting, a fight, and a strangled roar. All coming from the direction of the inn. He frowned and picked up the pace, slipping through the crowds that grew thicker the closer he got to where his party members were supposed to be staying for the rest of the day.

“Patton!” He heard Roman shout, followed by a pained yelp in the same direction, and finally he pushed his way to the front to see what was happening.

There was a hole now in the front of inn, a knocked out Logan laying in a tangle of his own limbs and the debris of the new hole. He quickly checks on his pulse, and sighed in relief when he felt the steady beat. He wasn’t badly hurt, and seemed to have protected himself before he lost consciousness.

Janus looked around before making eye contact with a young lady who looked like she wanted to run into the fray. He beckoned her over.

“Can you keep an eye on my friend here? He doesn’t seem to be badly hurt but he’s knocked out cold. I’ll be right back,” the woman barely had time to nod before he was hurrying through the hole, grabbing the hilt of his rapier.

“Patton stop!” This time it was Virgil who shouted, and as Janus entered the inn, he saw the strangest sight before him, and one that had his heart leaping to his throat.

The inn was absolutely trashed, with a fire slowly taking the far wall. Tables and chairs were broken and strewn about the place, with ruined food splattering the walls and floor. Remus stood in front of his brother, making himself look as big as he could. Both brothers were heavily wounded, with entire patches of scales almost ripped from their bodies. Roman was breathing heavily, a hand wrapped around his side as an off-colour red slipped through his fingers, staining his simple cream tunic.

Virgil was lifted off the ground, his tail thrashing just as much as the rest of him was. The red of his blood was vibrant against the deep purple of his skin, from several deep gashes across his face and body that Janus could see. One of his horns seemed to have snapped, but Janus couldn’t see where the snapped piece was. Not that he was looking away from that particular scene either, as the one holding Virgil up shocked him more than he cared to admit.

Patton’s back was to Janus. The firbolg stood much taller than he usually did, at his full height which was just maybe a foot under the ceiling of the dining area, his hair poofed and wild. He held Virgil with one hand by the collar of the tiefling’s tunic, while the other hand… no, no that was more claw than hand. Fingers elongated and disjointed, hooked into claw-shaped, and the white-blue of his furry body was streaked with deep blood-red.

Virgil noticed Janus first, his eyes widening before he struck out at Patton, managing to kick him right in the face and getting dropped. He landed wrong and cried out as he crumpled before Patton who had stumbled back from the kick with a strangled growl.

Something was very wrong. Janus couldn’t figure out what exactly was wrong, but this wasn’t right. He stepped further into the inn, causing the wood to creak unnaturally and some debris was kicked by his feet, catching the attention of the twins as well as Patton, and the moment the firbolg turned his attention from Virgil to Janus, he understood.

His eyes, which had always been a handsome shade of sleet gray, were now as red as the blood on his hands, and it was as if he were crying from the overflow of blood in his eyes, semi-transparent red trails down his cheeks. His mouth was distorted into a snarl, sharper than usual teeth filling the space and a couple of the wounds Remus had now made a bit more sense, looking like bite marks on the soft, squishy flesh under the scales.

Patton growled, the sound mangled in his throat. This was not Patton, Janus knew the gentle giant. Patton had been the first person who learned Janus’ secret, about why he was so good at disguising himself to look like completely different people in seconds. He had been the first one to _accept_ Janus for who he really was, and not for the creature he pretended to be. Patton was smiles and caution, ready to heal their battle-hungry friends - mainly the twins - and also ready to defend those who needed help. He loved people, animals - particularly dogs of various shapes and sizes - and more importantly, he cared about the world around them. He was primarily a gentle creature, and to see the twisted visage before Janus, it made him a strange mix of angry and fearful. Fearful for whatever could have caused this, and angry for their other friends being hurt by the very creature who had never even raised his voice in anger over any dumb bullshit the group started.

“What happened.” He ordered, keeping his eyes locked onto Patton. He pulled out his rapier and held it at the ready.

“Patton just started attacking us for no reason!” Remus answered, out of Janus’ periphery now. “He got all weird and then fired a spell at RoRo and flung Logan out of the building!”

Janus frowned and stepped forward, never looking anywhere but at Patton, searching for something, anything that would make sense about what was happening to him. This wasn’t really Patton. Was it a charm? But it was physically affecting him, not just mentally. Possession?

“You will leave him,” he said to whatever was changing Patton. “I won’t let you use my friend like a puppet.”

The warped figure seemed to laugh. It was hard to tell, but the shoulders shook and it _sounded_ like cackling, similar to how Remus would laugh at something that was a little macabre.

Janus struck before the creature could make a move.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [ LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:  
> Feedback
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> This author replies to comments.
> 
> So, a bit of background on this: This is loosely based on a much, much later scene that happened in one of my first campaigns I had ever played to near-completion. My character, a Wood Elf Druid (circle of the land), had been tasked to hold the amulet we had been sent to find and retrieve. How we got it back was utterly ridiculous (a lot to do with chickens and a chicken farmer who was actually a god who had to fight this Drow Queen I think, it's been some years) but we were at an inn, settling down from our adventures and about to later head off back to the one who wanted the amulet. For whatever reason, my character wanted to show the amulet to the others, but the moment she grabbed it, I was told to roll a save, which I failed spectacularly, and my character got possessed by whatever was in the amulet. This entity had a lust for violence/death, specifically of anyone my character cared for, meaning the party members that were there (and a paladin who stepped out before this all happened to visit his temple and pray because his player was going to be late to the session)  
> And my druid almost TPK'd the entire party, until the paladin returned and just kicked her ass almost single-handedly.  
> When I had seen Possession was a prompt for Whumptober, I all but zoomed to write this scene but with the Sides (and some differences, obviously)


End file.
